Caramel
by Aiwritingfic
Summary: Sweet caramel flavored fluff. Written for Kimmie during Fifthmus on LJ. Hikaru and Akira, rated PG.


Posted to my Livejournal archive (Apples For Me) on December 22, 2007.

**Title**: Caramel  
**Characters**: Hikaru/Akira  
**Wordcount/Rating**: 1200+ words / PG-13  
**Summary**: Sweet caramel-flavored fluff.  
**Author's Notes**: Written for Kimmie for Fifthmus on LJ. ♥ 

* * *

Ichigaya's canal was not conducive to sitting by the water and having a discussion about anything, Touya thought as he stood on loosely packed playground dirt and waited for Shindou. Inside his pockets, his fingers were numb. Touya thought Shindou lucky that the cold had abated somewhat--compared to the subzero temperatures recorded that morning, the night air almost felt warm. If it had been any colder, Touya would have told Shindou to find another time or place to meet; even now, he was tempted to abandon Shindou for the warmth of a cafe instead. Why he'd agreed to wait here, he had no idea, Touya thought. He gazed out into the night, looking out at waters too dark to see, listening as it flowed too quietly to hear.

"Hey, Touya, where are yo-- oh, there you are." It was Shindou, who was holding a plastic bag and rummaging inside it. "Touya, look--they had caramel sauce! How great is that? And I got us both ice creams. Here, this one's yours."

Touya looked at the ice cream cone in his hands for a moment, momentarily too surprised to speak. When he finally managed it, he said, "Shindou, it's the middle of December."

"I know," Shindou said in that Touya-you-are-stating-the-obvious voice he often used when he thought Touya was being particularly slow.

"Ice cream, Shindou? In the middle of December?" Touya asked incredulously. He should have known better; on any given day, Shindou often did things other saner people considered eccentric. Still, ice cream on a night when Touya's breath hung before him in the air, never mind that it was warmer than it had been earlier in the day ... it was difficult for Touya to comprehend Shindou, some days, and this was proving to be another one of them. (There went his theory of sunstroke being a contributing factor to Shindou's madness.)

"This way it won't melt and make a mess," Shindou said, tearing the wrapper off his cone. It was chocolate, and the chocolate top was covered with crushed peanuts. "Come on, Touya. A little ice cream won't kill you. I even went to the trouble of getting caramel sauce."

There was nothing Touya could say to that, and so he sat on the swing next to Shindou's. He watched as Shindou pulled off the rest of the ice cream wrapper and deposited it inside the plastic bag, pressed into service as a trash receptacle. When Shindou handed his now-unwrapped ice cream cone to Touya and said, "Here, hold this for a second," Touya did so. "Thanks," Shindou said, bending down to pull a small bottle out of the plastic bag.

Touya's own ice cream cone was still in its wrapper, but he made no move towards it, instead watching Shindou pick with worn fingernails at the brown plastic securing the bottlecap. "Shindou, what are you doing with that?" he finally asked.

"Caramel sauce and chocolate ice cream go well together," Shindou said, finally breaking the seal on the bottle. "Hold still, Touya--"

But the mouth of the bottle was too big, and the caramel sauce spilled. Touya pulled his hand (and ice cream) away just as Shindou said, "Hey, don't move!"

A moment later, caramel sauce--sticky, gooey, and rapidly thickening--coated Touya's fingers. "Look at what you've done," he told Shindou, annoyed--it was hardening on his fingers, the exposure to the cold air causing the liquid to gel and congeal.

"I told you not to move," Shindou said, shrugging as he grinned. "What a waste of caramel sauce."

Perhaps, but it was Shindou's fault, and Touya was not about to dwell on the matter any more than was necessary. "Take the ice creams, Shindou," he said, standing up. "I'm going to wash my hands."

"Just give me your hands," Shindou said as he set the bottle of caramel sauce down. Before Touya could react, Shindou had snagged his wrists.

"The ice creams, Shindou, take the--"

"Stop flailing, Touya, or you're going to get ice cream everywhere," Shindou said, taking his ice cream but not letting go of Touya's wrist. "Don't wash it off, that's good caramel sauce! Lick it up!"

"I'm not going to lick it off my hands," Touya said indignantly. "If you like caramel sauce so much, do it yourself!"

"Okay," Shindou said, shrugging. "You asked for it."

Too late, Touya realized Shindou was serious. "Shindou, no--" He tried to jerk his hand away, but it was already at Shindou's lips. Touya couldn't believe Shindou was doing this. "Shindou!"

Then Shindou put Touya's caramel-covered middle finger into his mouth. 

It was warm inside Shindou's mouth--almost hot. He could feel Shindou's tongue, warm and soft, licking at his finger now, and then Shindou was _sucking_ on Touya's finger as he sat on the swing set in the playground right next to the Ichigaya subway station exit, where anyone and everyone could see.

Shindou's tongue lapped at the tip of his finger, and electric sparks shot through Touya's insides. "Shindou, we're in public!" Touya hissed, only partially out of disbelief.

Shindou paused, but only long enough to give Touya a _look_. "So stop drawing attention," he said as he began to lick between Touya's fingers.

Touya tugged, but Shindou wasn't letting go of his hands, and if he pulled too hard he might end up hurting Shindou, who was still intently licking. So he shut his eyes, trying his best to make sure he continued breathing evenly. He was so focused on the task that it was only after a while, when Touya felt his finger distinctly colder, that he realized Shindou had stopped sucking on his fingers and was now licking along the back of Touya's hand and fingers.

Touya opened his eyes, watching Shindou's hot red tongue tracing the smooth stickiness of the brown caramel. There seemed to be a lot left. "You're not licking hard enough," Touya said, voice shaking slightly.

Shindou paused, looking up at Touya, eyes registering Touya's flushed face, parted lips, and the quickened rise-and-fall of Touya's chest. "Yeah, well, good things should be savored," Shindou said, though there was a questioning look in his eyes. "Are you in a hurry?"

"No," Touya said, averting his eyes. He couldn't see the river, but he imagined it was still flowing. "It's getting cold. You'll get sick."

"So will you," Shindou said, but he beamed up at Touya before bending his head and resuming where he left off. 

Above them, an old-fashioned streetlamp gave just enough light to show Touya the unbleached roots of Shindou's hair, and the way they moved softly in time with Shindou's tongue dipping into the crevices between his hands, where Touya was sure no caramel had trickled.

Touya felt dizzy and lightheaded, and looked up at the lamp, taking a deep breath as he did so. Then he paused. "Shindou," he said in wonder. "Look, it's beginning to snow."

They both looked up just as the first snowflakes descended. Shindou lifted Touya's hand, catching one on the caramel, and then bent to lick it off. Then he met Touya's eyes, grinning, and Touya couldn't help but shake his head.

"Just finish the caramel," Touya said, but there was a smile on his face.

Shindou smiled, and bent his head again.


End file.
